Man gets four-year jail in corruption case

New Delhi: A Delhi court has awarded four-year rigorous imprisonment to a man, who was employed as a clerk in an Army workshop, in a corruption case for causing a wrongful loss of Rs 34,800 to the government exchequer.
The court convicted Anil Kumar Dhyani, a check roll clerk in Army base workshop in Delhi cantonment, and imposed a fine of Rs 45,000 on him after holding him guilty for the offences under various sections of the IPC, including 420(cheating) and 477 A (falsification of accounts) and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Special CBI Judge Gurvinder Pal Singh said it was proved on record that by falsification of accounts and abusing his official position, Dhyani had put the Army base workshop at loss.

"It is proved on record that by falsification of accounts as aforesaid, the accused had put 505, Army Base Workshop, his employer, to wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 34,800 while others, may be including the accused, correspondingly wrongfully gained," the judge said.

The court also said that Dhyani was duty-bound to prepare,
get printed and put up the check rolls with actual and correct sums of salary payable to employees of the workshop but he inflated it, causing wrongful loss.

The judge said "corruption needs to be eradicated from the nation. The task is arduous but not unachievable... Public persons need to resist such illegitimate insistence and rather should act as whistleblowers".

The case against Dhyani was registered by CBI which alleged inflation in check rolls was done by Dhyani as it was he filled the net amount payable and recoveries in his own hand writing on the sheet pasted below the computerized summary sheet of check rolls.

CBI had alleged falsification of the records by Dhyani
could not be detected for 21 months and all payment sheets prepared by the him were found destroyed whereas the payment sheets of other check roll clerks were found intact.

During the trial, Dhyani had claimed he was falsely implicated and no material was seized by CBI when his house was raided in connection with the case.

The court, however, convicted him saying "the entire community is aggrieved if economic offenders who ruin the economy of the state are not brought to book and suitably punished."

The judge also said Parliament had measured the parameters for awarding punishment in such cases for a deterrent impact on other public servants who are prone to corruption.